Aguu: From Acholi Post War Street Youth and Children to ‘Criminal Gangs’ in Modern Day Gulu City, Uganda

Divon, Shai A.; Owor, Arthur

doi:10.12924/johs2020.16020082

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Beyond Sierra Leone, this research complements recent work on marginal African urban youth that emphasises the importance of local context and the dangers of uncritically importing framings developed in very different (often North American) milieux (see Abdullah 2020: 42; Divon & Owore 2021: 83). Recognising the fluidity and diversity of actors in urban Africa, and that rigid terminology is inimical to context-sensitivity (Fraser & Hagedorn 2018), it defines gangs broadly as ‘alienated groups socialized by the streets’ (Hagedorn 2008: 31).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 62%

‘A Game of Pain’: youth marginalisation and the gangs of Freetown

Mitton

2022

J. Mod. Afr. Stud.

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Within two decades, Sierra Leone's ‘cliques’ have transformed from peripheral social clubs to warring Crips, Bloods, and Black street gangs at the heart of criminal and political violence. Nevertheless, they remain severely under-studied, with scholarship on Sierra Leonean youth marginality heavily focused on ex-combatants. Drawing on extended fieldwork with Freetown's cliques as they played the ‘game’ – the daily hustle to survive and resist the ‘system’ – this article offers two main contributions. First, it addresses the knowledge gap by charting the origins, evolution and contemporary organisation of these new urban players. Second, it argues that although this history reveals continuity in perennial forms of youth marginalisation, it also shows that the game itself has changed. Cycles of escalating violence and growth are hardwired into this new game. Exacerbated by a political system that sustains and exploits them, cliques present a far greater challenge to everyday peace than has hitherto been recognised.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 62%

‘A Game of Pain’: youth marginalisation and the gangs of Freetown

Mitton

2022

J. Mod. Afr. Stud.

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“…Following the end of the conflict in northern Uganda, humanitarian workers continued to flood the region (Branch, 2013; Finnström, 2012, Divon & Owor, 2021), as is often the case in post-conflict situations (Bah, 2013). Consequently, academics of varying levels of seniority (including graduate students) visited, and continue to visit, Uganda either for their own research projects or as consultants for NGOs, developing their research profiles and creating new research entrepreneurs (Obbo, 2019; Schiltz & Büscher, 2018).…”

Section: Northern Uganda As a Research Hotspot During And After Conflictmentioning

confidence: 99%

Researching the Ethics of Data Collection in Post-conflict Acholiland (Northern Uganda): The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Owor¹

2022

International Journal of Qualitative Methods

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This research aims to contribute to debates on the decolonization of research in an African context with a focus on Gulu City in Northern Uganda. It seeks to investigate the key emerging contemporary ethical concerns in relation to researching post-conflict Northern Uganda, that is, before (clearance processes), during (conducting fieldwork alongside research collaborators) and after (information dissemination and data protection) research; examined with power relations as a denominator. The paper draws secondary sources, and primary data obtained through a set of qualitative research methodologies from research collaborators who have worked with foreign (Western) researchers. This study reveals the ethical issues and dilemmas that often precipitate the exploitation of research participants in the region. It also illustrates the dynamics of Uganda’s research industry and burgeoning research assistant culture and sub-economy. Finally, the research revealed the high levels of problematic data protection and storage issues in the region and the weaknesses of enforcement of data protection laws in the region and country. This points to the inconspicuous persistence of colonialism, oppression, and domination in systems of western research training and seek to include such an ethical understanding in their research practice.

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“…Even though 'fragmented and overlapping patterns of policing' exist in Uganda, the state maintains degrees of influence and control over alternative security provision, from the vil-lage level and upwards [30]. There is also evidence that the state in Uganda makes conscious decisions about intervening or allowing illegal attempts to provide security such as mob justice and vigilante actions taken by citizens or local political leadership to address criminality [30,34,41,42]. Some authors note that the Ugandan state maintains control over various forms of alternative security provision and acts ambiguously towards those, sometimes supporting them, at other times penalising them as it serves state interests or objectives [30,34].…”

Section: Police Community and The Statementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These are carried out by the disputing parties, by the families and relatives of disputing parties, or by others hired by the disputing parties to exert pressure or revenge. Those hired by disputing parties are local street children or adults, individuals or organised in gangs, who are ready to conduct criminal acts in exchange for money [42]. Criminal acts related to lack of access to livelihood opportunities are described as connected to the need to survive (for example theft or prostitution) and/or activities people engage in to enter an alternate state of mind to forget their troubles for a short while, or due to boredom and despair (for example alcoholism, drug use, defilement, assault).…”

Section: Gulu Crime and Insecuritymentioning

confidence: 99%

Police, Policing, and the Community: Community Policing in Theory and Practice in Gulu, Uganda

Divon

2021

Journal of Human Security

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In 2017 the Uganda Police Force (UPF) issued a Strategy for Community Policing (COP). The aim of the strategy is to provide a framework for the operationalisation of COP in the country. COP in Uganda is viewed both as a philosophy and an organisational strategy aiming at promoting new partnerships between the police and the community. This research examines how the UPF applies the COP strategy in Gulu Uganda to create new partnerships between the police and the community as part of the preparation for transforming Gulu into a city in Uganda. Anchored in qualitative research conducted in 2018-2019 in Gulu municipality, we examined COP in theory and practice. We fleshed out the different COP interventions installed by the police, observed how these applications of COP are perceived by the community and local leadership, and evaluated the extent to which these applications and perceptions contribute to creating new partnerships between the police and the public, as well as how these constitute an operationalisation of the UPF strategy for COP. There are several interventions labelled as COP in Gulu, including joint patrols, Mayumba Kumi, sensitisation activities, and partnerships with NGOs. Most of these applications are 'old wine in new bottles' and do not qualify as attempts to create new partnerships between the police and the public. In linkage to the mode of governance exercised by the Government of Uganda, the data collected indicates that the public at large still views the police as a corrupt, unpredictable, and a violent force that serves the interests of elites rather than a public service. As long as the police is viewed in such a way, it is difficult to create meaningful partnerships between the police and the public, and subsequently it becomes difficult to successfully apply the UPF COP strategy.

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Aguu: From Acholi Post War Street Youth and Children to ‘Criminal Gangs’ in Modern Day Gulu City, Uganda

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

‘A Game of Pain’: youth marginalisation and the gangs of Freetown

‘A Game of Pain’: youth marginalisation and the gangs of Freetown

Researching the Ethics of Data Collection in Post-conflict Acholiland (Northern Uganda): The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Police, Policing, and the Community: Community Policing in Theory and Practice in Gulu, Uganda

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